Verkopen heeft alles te maken met je emotie.
The human mind is anything but simple. But the mind is where marketing happens for you and your customers. So in order to effectively market your products and your company, you will need an insightful understanding of the minds of your customers.
In the E-Myth Mastery Program, we study the demographics of your target markets so that we’re able to quantify and understand the objective, directly observable characteristics that describe people and organizations that are important to you.
But capturing that information is only half of the equation.
After we’ve looked at the statistical data, we turn our attention to subjective data: psychographics. We investigate people's mental characteristics; specifically their perceptions, expectations, and conscious and unconscious decision making.
Webster’s Dictionary says that psychology is the science of mental processes and behavior, or the emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual or group. We take this definition a step further and define it in a way that is useful for marketing purposes. Psychographics are the mental characteristics that typify the people in markets and market segments; specifically, their self-perceptions, their drives, their perceptions and expectations of the world around them, and their emotional associations.
The good news is that uncovering this information is fascinating, and you’ll enjoy the discoveries and insights you develop about your customers and yourself. The bad news is that many business owners are resistant to doing this kind of critical research, and they can potentially miss out on the powerful insights into the human natures of their target markets that the psychographic data will give them.
Who Cares About Psychographics?
I had a client a while back, a veterinarian who also owned a small vet supply distributorship. He knew the demographics of his most typical customer, and that part of it was a breeze for him. But when we got to the psychographics, his initial response was: "Why is this important? I'm not a psychiatrist, and I really have no interest in getting inside their heads."
I explained that many large companies spend thousands of dollars to develop marketing strategies like the one he was building himself — and that a large part of a corporate budget went towards market research. Psychographics information is a major piece of that puzzle. I asked him if any of his suppliers (major feed and drug companies) ever contacted him over the years with questionnaires or surveys to respond to. He said, yes, but he never responded. He always thought they were a waste of time.
We continued with the Mastery marketing processes, but he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in doing the psychographic research. He didn’t see the value. I knew it was important, but he didn’t see that yet. So I asked him instead to simply trust his intuition and give it a try. He'd been in business for 20 years; he knew his customers pretty well and he could make some educated decisions about them. I suggested that he just fill out the worksheets based on what he felt he knew about these people.
And that’s just what he did. He started to work out the psychographics of his customers. As he worked through it, he began to change his mind about the value of it. In fact, he became intrigued and started to think outside the box. In a moment of wonderful inspiration, he decided to write one of his vet product suppliers. All the letter said was, 'I would like to know if you have a "Psychographics Model" for dairy farms with 100 cows or more. Thank you for your help.'
He came to our next meeting with a response from the manufacturer. In their cover letter to him, they'd apologized that their Psychographic Model was based on farms of 500 cows or more, but they hoped it helped. It was followed by three pages of information they'd compiled on the needs of his most typical clients--their self perceptions, beliefs, needs, fears, and wants. He was stunned!
The most dramatic impact was that the model he had created, based on his own experience in the beginning, was in complete alignment with the descriptions he got back from the manufacturer--who'd spent thousands of dollars in their research.
From that point on, not only did he have renewed faith in the power of market research, but he believed in himself. He truly saw the power he had locked away, and his ability to develop a great marketing strategy for his clients, based on what he "didn't know he knew.” He put some new systems into place to start intentionally capturing psychographic and demographic data. He has since been able to even better align his marketing strategy using this solid information and insight.
The Power in Understanding
There is a logic to successful marketing. It begins with demographic information about your markets and your customers. But information isn’t enough. What you’re really after is understanding and insight – understanding about the way your customers and prospective customers think, act, and make decisions, as well as insight into what really motivates them and how best to communicate with them.
Don’t overlook the importance of psychographic research. As my veterinary client realized, there’s great power in understanding what makes your clients “tick” and it’s there for you to discover.
Showing posts with label e-myth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label e-myth. Show all posts
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Vision-Based Business Plan
Dit bericht laat nog maar eens zien dat je een bedrijf moet beginnen vanuit je passie.
The idea of a business plan is very comforting. It makes people feel safe and secure to know that there is a plan guiding business activities in the “right” way.
But why is it that business plans almost never come to life? Why do almost all of them, once written, sit on a shelf and gather dust, while the futures they describe never see the light of day, and the businesses they describe wobble their way into their uncertain futures?
From the E-Myth perspective, a business plan is flawed right from the start unless it’s based on the right intention. In order for a business plan to work—to truly be useful—it must be based on your business vision.
Your vision is your dream for the future of the business and the path you will take to make it a reality. No matter what stage of the business development cycle your business is in (infancy, adolescence, or maturity), as the leader of the organization, your vision should be absolutely clear, it should describe where you are going and what the destination will be like.
A business without a vision is directionless. It lacks purpose and heart. It lacks the essential idea from which commitment, growth and the sense of personal achievement arise and flourish.
The same holds true for a business plan created without vision. Your business plan is the link between the work of your business and the vision that work is intended to produce.
Your business plan needs your vision to make it come alive, to make it a reality. And similarly, your vision needs the form, direction, and clarity of a business plan to give it relevance to the day-to-day operation of your business.
The Traditional Business Plan
Writing a traditional business plan is usually precipitated by one of two thoughts: either 1) we’d better write a business plan because “that’s what successful businesses do,” or 2) we need to write a business plan if we want to go out and borrow some money.
Most business plans, therefore, are developed from a head-centered place. In other words, they’re analytical and they’re dry. They’re full of charts and graphs and cerebral motivation which don’t appeal to emotions at all. A plan that starts in the head, based purely on logic and reason, lacks passion, excitement and purpose.
As we all know, humans make choices based on emotions. That’s why we always advise, when attracting and converting new customers, to appeal to their emotional mind rather than their rational mind. It’s the emotional part of the mind that makes the buying decisions. Doesn’t it then make sense that your business plan should inspire that same kind of emotional “buy in” with your employees, lenders, investors etc.?
The Vision-Based Plan
In contrast, a business plan that’s based on your business vision is propelled forward because you want it to work, as the expression says, with all your heart. In fact, you can also think of it as a heart-centered plan.
Your vision-based business plan is a statement of your vision and a current description of the main strategies and tactics you’ll use to make your vision come true. From the strategies and tactics discussed in your plan, each department and position will be able to develop the additional strategies, tactics, and systems to achieve their results and, ultimately, the strategic objective of the company.
Here are some “productive points of view” about planning that will make it a truly worthwhile endeavor:
* Start with what’s important to you. A mediocre plan that you (and others) feel passionately about will serve you better than a technically superior plan that you don’t feel strongly about.
* Approach planning as more of an art than a science. Professionally-formatted plans with tons of quantification and data can give a false impression of certainty and precision. Use your best thinking when you plan, but don’t forget that even the best thinking involves educated guesswork.
* Create a planning framework that accommodates change. Don’t think of your plan as a rigid, “final product” with every detail pinned down. Think of it more as a series of guideposts of key topics to focus attention on and targets to aim for.
* Treat the plan as a living, growing document. Review it, evaluate it, and revise it. Keep questioning your assumptions. Stay flexible and open to change.
A traditional business plan simply won’t give you the results you want or need because nobody’s committed to working it. The business plan that always works may look a lot like the traditional business plan; you could put them side by side and not notice any difference. But their appearance is where the similarity ends. A business plan based on vision, enthusiasm and purpose will trump your traditional business plan every time.
(Ready to revisit your business plan? Sign up for our Business Plan 101 virtual seminar Thursday, September 9 and we'll show you how to approach it from the E-Myth perspective.)
bron: E-Myth
The idea of a business plan is very comforting. It makes people feel safe and secure to know that there is a plan guiding business activities in the “right” way.
But why is it that business plans almost never come to life? Why do almost all of them, once written, sit on a shelf and gather dust, while the futures they describe never see the light of day, and the businesses they describe wobble their way into their uncertain futures?
From the E-Myth perspective, a business plan is flawed right from the start unless it’s based on the right intention. In order for a business plan to work—to truly be useful—it must be based on your business vision.
Your vision is your dream for the future of the business and the path you will take to make it a reality. No matter what stage of the business development cycle your business is in (infancy, adolescence, or maturity), as the leader of the organization, your vision should be absolutely clear, it should describe where you are going and what the destination will be like.
A business without a vision is directionless. It lacks purpose and heart. It lacks the essential idea from which commitment, growth and the sense of personal achievement arise and flourish.
The same holds true for a business plan created without vision. Your business plan is the link between the work of your business and the vision that work is intended to produce.
Your business plan needs your vision to make it come alive, to make it a reality. And similarly, your vision needs the form, direction, and clarity of a business plan to give it relevance to the day-to-day operation of your business.
The Traditional Business Plan
Writing a traditional business plan is usually precipitated by one of two thoughts: either 1) we’d better write a business plan because “that’s what successful businesses do,” or 2) we need to write a business plan if we want to go out and borrow some money.
Most business plans, therefore, are developed from a head-centered place. In other words, they’re analytical and they’re dry. They’re full of charts and graphs and cerebral motivation which don’t appeal to emotions at all. A plan that starts in the head, based purely on logic and reason, lacks passion, excitement and purpose.
As we all know, humans make choices based on emotions. That’s why we always advise, when attracting and converting new customers, to appeal to their emotional mind rather than their rational mind. It’s the emotional part of the mind that makes the buying decisions. Doesn’t it then make sense that your business plan should inspire that same kind of emotional “buy in” with your employees, lenders, investors etc.?
The Vision-Based Plan
In contrast, a business plan that’s based on your business vision is propelled forward because you want it to work, as the expression says, with all your heart. In fact, you can also think of it as a heart-centered plan.
Your vision-based business plan is a statement of your vision and a current description of the main strategies and tactics you’ll use to make your vision come true. From the strategies and tactics discussed in your plan, each department and position will be able to develop the additional strategies, tactics, and systems to achieve their results and, ultimately, the strategic objective of the company.
Here are some “productive points of view” about planning that will make it a truly worthwhile endeavor:
* Start with what’s important to you. A mediocre plan that you (and others) feel passionately about will serve you better than a technically superior plan that you don’t feel strongly about.
* Approach planning as more of an art than a science. Professionally-formatted plans with tons of quantification and data can give a false impression of certainty and precision. Use your best thinking when you plan, but don’t forget that even the best thinking involves educated guesswork.
* Create a planning framework that accommodates change. Don’t think of your plan as a rigid, “final product” with every detail pinned down. Think of it more as a series of guideposts of key topics to focus attention on and targets to aim for.
* Treat the plan as a living, growing document. Review it, evaluate it, and revise it. Keep questioning your assumptions. Stay flexible and open to change.
A traditional business plan simply won’t give you the results you want or need because nobody’s committed to working it. The business plan that always works may look a lot like the traditional business plan; you could put them side by side and not notice any difference. But their appearance is where the similarity ends. A business plan based on vision, enthusiasm and purpose will trump your traditional business plan every time.
(Ready to revisit your business plan? Sign up for our Business Plan 101 virtual seminar Thursday, September 9 and we'll show you how to approach it from the E-Myth perspective.)
bron: E-Myth
Saturday, September 11, 2010
7 Signs That Your Business is in Trouble
Weet jij wanneer je bedrijf in de problemen zit? Dit is een goed bericht hierover van E-Myth.
When navigating through dangerous waters a wise captain keeps an eye on certain signs. The shape and size of certain waves, the color of the water at critical points, the presence of rocks or sandbars, things that can be difficult to spot for the untrained eye. The truly wise captain knows these signs because he or she has sailed through treacherous waters before and survived to sail again. And they constantly watch for the signs.
But what if you had never charted your way through rough stretches before? How do you know what you should be looking for? It’s been said that a smart man is one that learns from his mistakes--a wise man learns from other people’s mistakes. While there may be many warning signs that indicate a business is heading into dangerous seas, there are a certain few that every business owner must be diligently aware of.
Don’t be a Captain Smith
I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship building has gone beyond that .
– Captain Edward J. Smith, HMS Titanic
On April 15, 1912 the HMS Titanic sank in the early morning darkness after having struck an iceberg two and half hours prior. Tragically, over 1,500 people perished. The Titanic was on its maiden voyage and considered nearly unsinkable by the owners and many of the officers and crew on board.
Unfortunately, very few lifeboats were filled to maximum capacity when they were lowered from the Titanic into the icy water. This caused the death toll to rise dramatically. When the order came from Captain Smith to commence loading the lifeboats, the Titanic's officers were probably unaware of the magnitude of the situation. Their apparent complacency did not instill a sense of urgency in the passengers and therefore caused many of them to balk at the opportunity to get into a lifeboat.
In retrospect it has been easy to see that many signs were ignored, dismissed, or simply regarded with a cursory acknowledgment. While your business certainly does not compare with an ocean liner, the same unfortunate results could occur from a combination of ill-preparedness, complacency and the inability to recognize and appreciate the danger signs.
The twin dangers evident in the Titanic disaster were ignorance, or lack of knowledge, and presumptuousness. Key players in charge of the ship were either woefully ill-equipped to see and recognize the danger signs, or were overly confident that nothing of that magnitude could happen to “their” ship. While we trust that most business owners are wise enough to know that their “ships” are not unsinkable, not every owner is necessarily aware or knowledgeable of what danger signs to watch for.
The Seven Deadly Signs
1. You don’t know where your next sale is coming from .
Having a consistent and reliable flow of customers and sales is essential for the health and growth of any business. Marketing and lead generation must be effective and ongoing in order to provide the flow of sales, current and future, needed for planning and for implementing strategy.
2. Your employees are unhappy or demoralized.
The culture, environment and atmosphere of your business will have a direct impact on your customers by way of client fulfillment, customer service, and overall productivity and quality. Unhappy and demoralized staff will not perform to the standards you want and this will have a tangible effect.
3. You feel like you can never be away or take a vacation.
If the functioning of your business is wholly dependent on you and your presence, it will never grow further than that. You must have an effective management component in place to free you from your business enough to have a life outside of the business.
4. You are losing more customers than you are gaining.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that if you are consistently losing more customers than you are making it is simply a matter of time before you have less customers than you need to break even. And if that trend continues you will be taking on water – or red ink!
5. The company’s objectives are not clearly defined to your employees.
This is a bit more insidious but still critical sign of trouble. Imagine a soccer team where none of the players know what the team was trying to accomplish. It’s not enough to simply “do your job” – everyone needs to know the vision, the strategy for getting there, and how they fit in with it all.
6. Your business is constantly in a “survival” mode.
This can actually be a combination of signs and symptoms, but the general sense of it is easily recognized and can be deadly for a business owner. The daily onslaught of unpaid vendors, outstanding receivables and lack of sales can grind away at you and take the wind out of your sails.
7. The passion is gone and you dread going to work every day.
A loss of passion can be attributed to any number of things, but is usually a result of the combined toll of many of the signs listed above. It could be argued that a business owner who has no passion for what he or she is doing is on a fast-track to “jumping ship,” to keep to our metaphors.
Smooth Sailing
Despite economic and other conditions, the reality is that most any business can not only survive, but thrive and grow while avoiding taking on water or losing direction. How do you avoid these pitfalls?
* Be at the helm at all times
* Have a map and a destination
* Keep both hands on the wheel
* Maintain a diligent watch for warning signs
As the business owner this is part of your primary accountability to yourself and to your employees, customers and vendors. It has been said that although the destination is important, it is the journey that makes the venture worthwhile in the end.
When navigating through dangerous waters a wise captain keeps an eye on certain signs. The shape and size of certain waves, the color of the water at critical points, the presence of rocks or sandbars, things that can be difficult to spot for the untrained eye. The truly wise captain knows these signs because he or she has sailed through treacherous waters before and survived to sail again. And they constantly watch for the signs.
But what if you had never charted your way through rough stretches before? How do you know what you should be looking for? It’s been said that a smart man is one that learns from his mistakes--a wise man learns from other people’s mistakes. While there may be many warning signs that indicate a business is heading into dangerous seas, there are a certain few that every business owner must be diligently aware of.
Don’t be a Captain Smith
I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship building has gone beyond that .
– Captain Edward J. Smith, HMS Titanic
On April 15, 1912 the HMS Titanic sank in the early morning darkness after having struck an iceberg two and half hours prior. Tragically, over 1,500 people perished. The Titanic was on its maiden voyage and considered nearly unsinkable by the owners and many of the officers and crew on board.
Unfortunately, very few lifeboats were filled to maximum capacity when they were lowered from the Titanic into the icy water. This caused the death toll to rise dramatically. When the order came from Captain Smith to commence loading the lifeboats, the Titanic's officers were probably unaware of the magnitude of the situation. Their apparent complacency did not instill a sense of urgency in the passengers and therefore caused many of them to balk at the opportunity to get into a lifeboat.
In retrospect it has been easy to see that many signs were ignored, dismissed, or simply regarded with a cursory acknowledgment. While your business certainly does not compare with an ocean liner, the same unfortunate results could occur from a combination of ill-preparedness, complacency and the inability to recognize and appreciate the danger signs.
The twin dangers evident in the Titanic disaster were ignorance, or lack of knowledge, and presumptuousness. Key players in charge of the ship were either woefully ill-equipped to see and recognize the danger signs, or were overly confident that nothing of that magnitude could happen to “their” ship. While we trust that most business owners are wise enough to know that their “ships” are not unsinkable, not every owner is necessarily aware or knowledgeable of what danger signs to watch for.
The Seven Deadly Signs
1. You don’t know where your next sale is coming from .
Having a consistent and reliable flow of customers and sales is essential for the health and growth of any business. Marketing and lead generation must be effective and ongoing in order to provide the flow of sales, current and future, needed for planning and for implementing strategy.
2. Your employees are unhappy or demoralized.
The culture, environment and atmosphere of your business will have a direct impact on your customers by way of client fulfillment, customer service, and overall productivity and quality. Unhappy and demoralized staff will not perform to the standards you want and this will have a tangible effect.
3. You feel like you can never be away or take a vacation.
If the functioning of your business is wholly dependent on you and your presence, it will never grow further than that. You must have an effective management component in place to free you from your business enough to have a life outside of the business.
4. You are losing more customers than you are gaining.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that if you are consistently losing more customers than you are making it is simply a matter of time before you have less customers than you need to break even. And if that trend continues you will be taking on water – or red ink!
5. The company’s objectives are not clearly defined to your employees.
This is a bit more insidious but still critical sign of trouble. Imagine a soccer team where none of the players know what the team was trying to accomplish. It’s not enough to simply “do your job” – everyone needs to know the vision, the strategy for getting there, and how they fit in with it all.
6. Your business is constantly in a “survival” mode.
This can actually be a combination of signs and symptoms, but the general sense of it is easily recognized and can be deadly for a business owner. The daily onslaught of unpaid vendors, outstanding receivables and lack of sales can grind away at you and take the wind out of your sails.
7. The passion is gone and you dread going to work every day.
A loss of passion can be attributed to any number of things, but is usually a result of the combined toll of many of the signs listed above. It could be argued that a business owner who has no passion for what he or she is doing is on a fast-track to “jumping ship,” to keep to our metaphors.
Smooth Sailing
Despite economic and other conditions, the reality is that most any business can not only survive, but thrive and grow while avoiding taking on water or losing direction. How do you avoid these pitfalls?
* Be at the helm at all times
* Have a map and a destination
* Keep both hands on the wheel
* Maintain a diligent watch for warning signs
As the business owner this is part of your primary accountability to yourself and to your employees, customers and vendors. It has been said that although the destination is important, it is the journey that makes the venture worthwhile in the end.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Delivering on Your Promises
Doe wat je zegt, dat is zo belangrijk! Hie een goed stuk van E-Myth hierover.
It started because my 16-year-old son had outgrown the length of his twin bed. He needed a longer, larger mattress and box spring set. We thought we needed a full mattress, but we did our research and discovered that while a full mattress is wider than a twin, it’s not longer. A queen on the other hand is wider and longer. We needed a queen-sized bed.
Free Delivery and Set Up
We checked local ads and found a place that made this promise: "We will deliver, set up, and take away your old mattress." Sounded good to me. So we made the trip and settled on a set that was not too hard and not too soft and, thankfully, on sale. In other words: just right for both of us.
We placed our order with the salesperson and were informed that they would be by between 5:00 and 5:30 pm on the following Friday to deliver the new bed.
We cleared a path to his upstairs room, removing mirrors and pictures on the stairway wall. My son managed to rake away enough of his teenage “stuff” to allow a bed-sized footprint for the delivery crew.
On Friday, the delivery truck arrived, on time, as promised. Good sign. We showed them the path up to his room. One guy carried up the box containing the metal frame. Then they brought in the mattress. It was a tight squeeze between the stairway railing and the first landing, but mattresses bend. They got it into his room and went back for the box spring. Box springs, by their nature, are designed not to bend. And in fact, no matter how the workmen tipped, repositioned or approached the problem, the box spring just could not be made to clear the gap between the ceiling, landing and railing.
After 10 minutes of trial and error, it became very clear that the box spring would not make it up the stairs unless the railing was removed. I said as much. They stared at me, a glance passed between them. They carefully set the box spring down on its edge, leaning against the living room couch. His hands now free, the driver handed me the receipt and the mattress warranty...and left! They left!! They left me with a queen-sized box spring leaning in my living room, a mattress leaning against the wall in my son’s bedroom, and a metal frame assembly sitting in its box … all waiting to be brought to critical mass by...ME!
Feeling Set Up
I suppose you could say that the store kept its promise: "We will deliver, set up, and take away your old mattress." They did take away the old mattress. They did deliver the parts. And, they left me feeling...set up! Three hours later, with a collection of all the wrong tools, and my son's help, we had the railing off. A neighbor helped me wrestle the bed upstairs. My son assembled the frame. He and his cat slept soundly on the new bed that night.
Will I go back to this store when my younger son is ready for his longer bed? Not a chance! Did I call to complain? Nope. I didn't need any more aggravation. I figured: the delivery guys were a reflection of the culture of the store. The owner might have made some excuse, or pointed out some fine print in the agreement--but what kind of satisfaction would I have obtained?
Besides, I didn't want to give them the edge to decide that, as we teach in our Mastery coaching programs, every complaint is an opportunity for improvement. I didn't care if they improved. They'd had their one and only chance to make me a customer instead of just a sale, and they blew it.
It would have been a hassle for these delivery guys to remove my railing--but they probably had better tools than I did and they'd probably done it before, and they probably could have done it in under 15 minutes and left a totally satisfied source of referrals in their wake; a customer for life. But they didn't. What they did was to leave an unfulfilled, one-time-only customer. They got my money—but they didn't keep me.
Could This Be You?
How often do you think that your business disappoints a customer and they never bother to let you know? They just don't come back.
If you’ve done your marketing homework, you know how to attract the right people to your business and everything you do tells them: "Here is where you need to come to get the satisfaction you deserve. We understand your needs and are ready to respond to them in ways you have only imagined!" They show up. They buy something. And now you have to deliver. You have to make sure that you can deliver the promise they think you've made.
You better be ready to dazzle them! Think about the very best purchasing experience you've ever had. What was it like to really experience everything and more than you'd been promised? Wouldn't you like to provide your customer with that experience each and every time you have the opportunity?
Four Areas of Focus in Client Fulfillment
There are really four areas to consider in bringing maximum value to your customer.
* Product Design and Strategy: Do your products do what you promise they'll do? Are they designed with your customers' needs in mind?
* Your Production Process: No matter what you produce--donuts, career counseling, remodeled kitchens, or tai chi training--it must be of the highest quality and orchestrated to minimize cost.
* Your Delivery Process: Your delivery process is equally the physical transfer of your product or service to the customer and the experience your customer has at the time of this transfer. This is more than a hand-off and a signature. This is the critical point at which your customer must feel the BEST about the decision that's been made.
* Customer Service: This is free. This enhances the main offer. This is where you have your most critical competitive advantage. It could be additional information, follow-up assistance, advice, notice of upgrades, credit assistance or a hyper-responsive complaints department.
The only way to assure that your clients are getting exactly what it is they need every time—once you discover what that really is—is to create a system to deliver it. No promise is more important to keep than the one you make to your customers about your products or services. If you don't deliver on this promise, no marketing strategy or sales technique will keep your customers coming back. You have to prove that you're paying attention to their needs and that they can expect you to give them what they want.
Delivering on your promises is your mission.
I wish the mattress store had thought of that. I wish that it was part of their system to complete the promise they’d made to me. But they didn’t. And I won’t be back.
It started because my 16-year-old son had outgrown the length of his twin bed. He needed a longer, larger mattress and box spring set. We thought we needed a full mattress, but we did our research and discovered that while a full mattress is wider than a twin, it’s not longer. A queen on the other hand is wider and longer. We needed a queen-sized bed.
Free Delivery and Set Up
We checked local ads and found a place that made this promise: "We will deliver, set up, and take away your old mattress." Sounded good to me. So we made the trip and settled on a set that was not too hard and not too soft and, thankfully, on sale. In other words: just right for both of us.
We placed our order with the salesperson and were informed that they would be by between 5:00 and 5:30 pm on the following Friday to deliver the new bed.
We cleared a path to his upstairs room, removing mirrors and pictures on the stairway wall. My son managed to rake away enough of his teenage “stuff” to allow a bed-sized footprint for the delivery crew.
On Friday, the delivery truck arrived, on time, as promised. Good sign. We showed them the path up to his room. One guy carried up the box containing the metal frame. Then they brought in the mattress. It was a tight squeeze between the stairway railing and the first landing, but mattresses bend. They got it into his room and went back for the box spring. Box springs, by their nature, are designed not to bend. And in fact, no matter how the workmen tipped, repositioned or approached the problem, the box spring just could not be made to clear the gap between the ceiling, landing and railing.
After 10 minutes of trial and error, it became very clear that the box spring would not make it up the stairs unless the railing was removed. I said as much. They stared at me, a glance passed between them. They carefully set the box spring down on its edge, leaning against the living room couch. His hands now free, the driver handed me the receipt and the mattress warranty...and left! They left!! They left me with a queen-sized box spring leaning in my living room, a mattress leaning against the wall in my son’s bedroom, and a metal frame assembly sitting in its box … all waiting to be brought to critical mass by...ME!
Feeling Set Up
I suppose you could say that the store kept its promise: "We will deliver, set up, and take away your old mattress." They did take away the old mattress. They did deliver the parts. And, they left me feeling...set up! Three hours later, with a collection of all the wrong tools, and my son's help, we had the railing off. A neighbor helped me wrestle the bed upstairs. My son assembled the frame. He and his cat slept soundly on the new bed that night.
Will I go back to this store when my younger son is ready for his longer bed? Not a chance! Did I call to complain? Nope. I didn't need any more aggravation. I figured: the delivery guys were a reflection of the culture of the store. The owner might have made some excuse, or pointed out some fine print in the agreement--but what kind of satisfaction would I have obtained?
Besides, I didn't want to give them the edge to decide that, as we teach in our Mastery coaching programs, every complaint is an opportunity for improvement. I didn't care if they improved. They'd had their one and only chance to make me a customer instead of just a sale, and they blew it.
It would have been a hassle for these delivery guys to remove my railing--but they probably had better tools than I did and they'd probably done it before, and they probably could have done it in under 15 minutes and left a totally satisfied source of referrals in their wake; a customer for life. But they didn't. What they did was to leave an unfulfilled, one-time-only customer. They got my money—but they didn't keep me.
Could This Be You?
How often do you think that your business disappoints a customer and they never bother to let you know? They just don't come back.
If you’ve done your marketing homework, you know how to attract the right people to your business and everything you do tells them: "Here is where you need to come to get the satisfaction you deserve. We understand your needs and are ready to respond to them in ways you have only imagined!" They show up. They buy something. And now you have to deliver. You have to make sure that you can deliver the promise they think you've made.
You better be ready to dazzle them! Think about the very best purchasing experience you've ever had. What was it like to really experience everything and more than you'd been promised? Wouldn't you like to provide your customer with that experience each and every time you have the opportunity?
Four Areas of Focus in Client Fulfillment
There are really four areas to consider in bringing maximum value to your customer.
* Product Design and Strategy: Do your products do what you promise they'll do? Are they designed with your customers' needs in mind?
* Your Production Process: No matter what you produce--donuts, career counseling, remodeled kitchens, or tai chi training--it must be of the highest quality and orchestrated to minimize cost.
* Your Delivery Process: Your delivery process is equally the physical transfer of your product or service to the customer and the experience your customer has at the time of this transfer. This is more than a hand-off and a signature. This is the critical point at which your customer must feel the BEST about the decision that's been made.
* Customer Service: This is free. This enhances the main offer. This is where you have your most critical competitive advantage. It could be additional information, follow-up assistance, advice, notice of upgrades, credit assistance or a hyper-responsive complaints department.
The only way to assure that your clients are getting exactly what it is they need every time—once you discover what that really is—is to create a system to deliver it. No promise is more important to keep than the one you make to your customers about your products or services. If you don't deliver on this promise, no marketing strategy or sales technique will keep your customers coming back. You have to prove that you're paying attention to their needs and that they can expect you to give them what they want.
Delivering on your promises is your mission.
I wish the mattress store had thought of that. I wish that it was part of their system to complete the promise they’d made to me. But they didn’t. And I won’t be back.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Recruiting Ads That Work
One of my clients, a chiropractor, recently decided it was time to hire an Administrative Assistant for his growing business. When it came time to announce the job, I asked him to send me the ad first so we could review what he’d come up with. Here’s what the ad said:
Administrative Assistant Wanted
Responsibilities include answering phones, scheduling appointments, typing medical reports,
data entry and filing.
Experience in a busy medical office is a plus.
$14 hourly.
So, will this ad work? Well, he’ll certainly get responses. In fact, in this day and age, he might get 100 responses.
But the question is: will it get the right responses?
He'll probably end up with applicants who are indeed capable of typing medical reports and so on, but there's nothing about this ad that speaks to the personality of his company or of his ideal candidate. Therefore, he’s going to have to spend far too much time and resources reading resumes and interviewing people to find the right employee. And time and resources mean spending money which means a hit to his bottom line.
Now, anyone who’s ever written a job description for the purpose of hiring a new employee knows that it’s no piece of cake. Even if you think you have the job function outlined pretty well, it can be challenging to get it right (especially if it’s your first hire and many of the responsibilities of the role are now owned by you.)
If at all possible, once you’ve made the decision to hire, take your time. Finding the right people to staff your expanding organization is very important. In fact, there’s no more important expenditure you can make than the time and money it takes to recruit the right people.
Use a Marketing Approach
At E-Myth we encourage our client’s to approach recruiting as a form of marketing and lead generation. Because finding the right employees for your company is like finding the right customers, the same principles apply to the recruiting process. You’ve got a product you want to sell (employment in your company) and you need to generate “leads” (applicants) that you can eventually convert into “customers” (new employees).
Before you post your job announcement, here are some things to consider:
* What is the product you are selling? In other words, what is the idea behind your business? We like to call it “the game worth playing.” What makes your product (the company) unique? What makes it a game worth playing? What sets you apart from the competition in the eyes of potential employees?
* What are the specifics of the job? Define the results you want the position to deliver and responsibilities expected of the position.
* Who is the customer for this product? Who is the ideal candidate for this position? What personality traits will the right person have to fit into our company culture? You need to identify the perfect person for the job so that when they walk through the door, you’re ready. What personality are you looking for? Gregarious or introverted? Do you need somebody capable of doing many things, or somebody with laser-like focus?
* Where are the customers (geographically)? Is this a telecommuting position? Is this an on site position? What’s the acceptable radius for an on site employee?
* What message will attract them? If you’ve defined everything above, you should be able to determine what message will attract the ideal person you’re looking for.
* What channel will best reach them? Where you place your ad will make a huge difference. Is it appropriate for Craig’s List, your local newspaper, LinkedIn? Again, your research into the ideal customer should inform where you can reach them best.
One of the ways to differentiate your recruitment ad is to have the ad carry the promise of emotional gratification. By giving your ads some emotional appeal, you will attract better candidates because not only will they be technically qualified (as you will ascertain in the process) but they will likely be nice people that desire to work with nice people!
What would happen if my client replaced his ad with something like this?
Are you great with people?
We are seeking a top-notch Administrative Associate. Are you professional, warm, tactful and just all around great with people? Are you organized and able to concentrate on details that are important to customers and staff? If so, and you’re ready to join our growing business, email your resume and salary requirements to 555/555.1212. We'd love to hear from you!
State Street Chiropractic
Body work for life!
You’ll notice that this ad is written more like a traditional marketing message. The emphasis is on the quality of the work, not just the skills and it’s more about personality and company culture than just the tasks associated with the position. It’s really about making an emotional connection with the right person.
In many companies, hiring is one of the most volatile and least effective processes in the business. Job descriptions are vague, managers have preconceived ideas about what kinds of people they need to hire (and don’t understand the interplay between skills and personal qualities), and the whole process of attracting and processing candidates is haphazard and inefficient. But like your lead generation process, your recruiting process can be broken out into component systems that fit together to create reliable results. Take the time to construct, quantify, and test them so you can fine-tune your recruiting efforts to your hiring needs whenever they arise. Remember, your people are a long-term investment, and you don’t want to make long-term commitments with short-term methods.
Administrative Assistant Wanted
Responsibilities include answering phones, scheduling appointments, typing medical reports,
data entry and filing.
Experience in a busy medical office is a plus.
$14 hourly.
So, will this ad work? Well, he’ll certainly get responses. In fact, in this day and age, he might get 100 responses.
But the question is: will it get the right responses?
He'll probably end up with applicants who are indeed capable of typing medical reports and so on, but there's nothing about this ad that speaks to the personality of his company or of his ideal candidate. Therefore, he’s going to have to spend far too much time and resources reading resumes and interviewing people to find the right employee. And time and resources mean spending money which means a hit to his bottom line.
Now, anyone who’s ever written a job description for the purpose of hiring a new employee knows that it’s no piece of cake. Even if you think you have the job function outlined pretty well, it can be challenging to get it right (especially if it’s your first hire and many of the responsibilities of the role are now owned by you.)
If at all possible, once you’ve made the decision to hire, take your time. Finding the right people to staff your expanding organization is very important. In fact, there’s no more important expenditure you can make than the time and money it takes to recruit the right people.
Use a Marketing Approach
At E-Myth we encourage our client’s to approach recruiting as a form of marketing and lead generation. Because finding the right employees for your company is like finding the right customers, the same principles apply to the recruiting process. You’ve got a product you want to sell (employment in your company) and you need to generate “leads” (applicants) that you can eventually convert into “customers” (new employees).
Before you post your job announcement, here are some things to consider:
* What is the product you are selling? In other words, what is the idea behind your business? We like to call it “the game worth playing.” What makes your product (the company) unique? What makes it a game worth playing? What sets you apart from the competition in the eyes of potential employees?
* What are the specifics of the job? Define the results you want the position to deliver and responsibilities expected of the position.
* Who is the customer for this product? Who is the ideal candidate for this position? What personality traits will the right person have to fit into our company culture? You need to identify the perfect person for the job so that when they walk through the door, you’re ready. What personality are you looking for? Gregarious or introverted? Do you need somebody capable of doing many things, or somebody with laser-like focus?
* Where are the customers (geographically)? Is this a telecommuting position? Is this an on site position? What’s the acceptable radius for an on site employee?
* What message will attract them? If you’ve defined everything above, you should be able to determine what message will attract the ideal person you’re looking for.
* What channel will best reach them? Where you place your ad will make a huge difference. Is it appropriate for Craig’s List, your local newspaper, LinkedIn? Again, your research into the ideal customer should inform where you can reach them best.
One of the ways to differentiate your recruitment ad is to have the ad carry the promise of emotional gratification. By giving your ads some emotional appeal, you will attract better candidates because not only will they be technically qualified (as you will ascertain in the process) but they will likely be nice people that desire to work with nice people!
What would happen if my client replaced his ad with something like this?
Are you great with people?
We are seeking a top-notch Administrative Associate. Are you professional, warm, tactful and just all around great with people? Are you organized and able to concentrate on details that are important to customers and staff? If so, and you’re ready to join our growing business, email your resume and salary requirements to 555/555.1212. We'd love to hear from you!
State Street Chiropractic
Body work for life!
You’ll notice that this ad is written more like a traditional marketing message. The emphasis is on the quality of the work, not just the skills and it’s more about personality and company culture than just the tasks associated with the position. It’s really about making an emotional connection with the right person.
In many companies, hiring is one of the most volatile and least effective processes in the business. Job descriptions are vague, managers have preconceived ideas about what kinds of people they need to hire (and don’t understand the interplay between skills and personal qualities), and the whole process of attracting and processing candidates is haphazard and inefficient. But like your lead generation process, your recruiting process can be broken out into component systems that fit together to create reliable results. Take the time to construct, quantify, and test them so you can fine-tune your recruiting efforts to your hiring needs whenever they arise. Remember, your people are a long-term investment, and you don’t want to make long-term commitments with short-term methods.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Passing the Managerial Hat
Een goed stuk van E-Myth
A few years back I watched a movie called The Stepfather. Until the final five minutes of gore, it’s a wonderfully constructed psychological thriller. The title character is a man who is forever searching to fulfill his vision of the perfect family; the house in the suburbs, the dutiful child and loving spouse. He wanders from town to town, insinuating himself into households as the "ideal" second husband and father. He creates in his mind the picture of the perfect nuclear family, then goes into violent meltdown when his "families" don't match the movie in his head.
There is a stunning pivotal scene in which one of his current wives catches him in a lie. They're in the kitchen, and he's called her by another wife's name.
"What did you say, John?" she asks.
The camera shows John's face in the foreground, his "wife" in the background. We see the deconstruction in his face, the eyes darting right, then left. He says, more to himself than to her: "Wait a minute. Who am I here?"
After that, things get pretty ugly.
I don't believe I'm stretching the point to suggest that for many business owners, this feeling of "disconnect" is much the same--which is why, unless you own a restaurant, you shouldn't leave sharp objects laying around.
Who am I Here?
Most business owners wear several hats. They are not interchangeable, and you can't wear them all at the same time. You must continually be asking: "Who am I here?"
Ultimately, for your business to grow and thrive, you have to settle on the one with the best fit, and pass the others off.
The E-Myth makes strong distinctions between being an Entrepreneur, a Manager, and a Technician. In condensed form, we could say:
* The Entrepreneur creates the Vision.
* The Manager creates the Systems.
* The Technician creates the Results.
Each character requires a different hat.
Participants in our E-Myth Mastery Program are challenged to examine the hats they wear in their business and the relative value of each. All business owners have qualities of each, but where they most often lack confidence or expertise is in that of The Manager. Makes sense though, right? The E-Myth states that most businesses are started by technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. Being a manager doesn’t even come up in that scenario.
Invariably, after serious self-examination, a business owner will conclude: "What I really need to do is to hire a Manager."
What a Manager Needs to Be
Certainly, an effective manager has the potential to take on some of the accountabilities that command so much of your time. But how is this by itself really going to move your vision any closer to reality--and without bloodshed?
Back to the hats: In the development stage of your business, they're all yours to wear. You must be able to look at your business from each of the three distinctive points of view. As The Entrepreneur, you have the sole authority and responsibility to determine the direction of the business. How will the business be positioned in the world; in the eyes of its customers, employees, lenders, vendors and the larger community? The Entrepreneur must determine and constantly reinforce the company's intention.
The Entrepreneur's vision is The Manager's marching orders; the vision is the gold standard. The Manager's duty is to enforce and manifest the vision.
Ultimately, managerial work bridges the space between the entrepreneur's vision for the company and the daily technical efforts moving the business toward that vision. Effective managers, those who can motivate employees to reach their full potential while working on beneficial tasks, are instrumental in building turnkey, systems-dependent businesses.
What a Manager Needs To Do
A Manager must have several critical characteristics. One is "know-how." Some managers arrive with some "know-how" intact--knowing what to do and how to do it—getting work done through other people (Technicians). At a minimum, effective managers will have the ability to find out how to do that. Knowing how or knowing how to find out how is one of the minimum required skills of a successful Manager.
The other essential characteristic of a successful Manager is the ability to transform that know-how into processes and systems that will enable people to get the desired results.
The only effective processes and systems are those that will achieve the Entrepreneur's vision. Those processes and systems are the tools the Technicians use to get the results that fulfill the vision. The Manager does not manage people. The Manager manages systems. People are unmanageable. Systems are not.
People respond to orchestrated patterns. Within those patterns (systems and processes), people can manage themselves! Let me say again: People are unmanageable. Systems are not.
An effective business must begin with the vision. The effective Entrepreneur creates a compelling vision and infuses it throughout the entire organization. The effective Entrepreneur lives the vision. The effective Manager translates that vision into systems, and delegates the tasks to the Technician. The effective Technician operates within the system to create the results that move the vision forward.
A successful business owner does not wear all the hats at once. The owner of a successful business must practice the art of discrimination. The owner of an E-Myth business must know what hat is appropriate at any given moment, what characteristics are essential when wearing that hat, and when it is time to pass it off.
A few years back I watched a movie called The Stepfather. Until the final five minutes of gore, it’s a wonderfully constructed psychological thriller. The title character is a man who is forever searching to fulfill his vision of the perfect family; the house in the suburbs, the dutiful child and loving spouse. He wanders from town to town, insinuating himself into households as the "ideal" second husband and father. He creates in his mind the picture of the perfect nuclear family, then goes into violent meltdown when his "families" don't match the movie in his head.
There is a stunning pivotal scene in which one of his current wives catches him in a lie. They're in the kitchen, and he's called her by another wife's name.
"What did you say, John?" she asks.
The camera shows John's face in the foreground, his "wife" in the background. We see the deconstruction in his face, the eyes darting right, then left. He says, more to himself than to her: "Wait a minute. Who am I here?"
After that, things get pretty ugly.
I don't believe I'm stretching the point to suggest that for many business owners, this feeling of "disconnect" is much the same--which is why, unless you own a restaurant, you shouldn't leave sharp objects laying around.
Who am I Here?
Most business owners wear several hats. They are not interchangeable, and you can't wear them all at the same time. You must continually be asking: "Who am I here?"
Ultimately, for your business to grow and thrive, you have to settle on the one with the best fit, and pass the others off.
The E-Myth makes strong distinctions between being an Entrepreneur, a Manager, and a Technician. In condensed form, we could say:
* The Entrepreneur creates the Vision.
* The Manager creates the Systems.
* The Technician creates the Results.
Each character requires a different hat.
Participants in our E-Myth Mastery Program are challenged to examine the hats they wear in their business and the relative value of each. All business owners have qualities of each, but where they most often lack confidence or expertise is in that of The Manager. Makes sense though, right? The E-Myth states that most businesses are started by technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. Being a manager doesn’t even come up in that scenario.
Invariably, after serious self-examination, a business owner will conclude: "What I really need to do is to hire a Manager."
What a Manager Needs to Be
Certainly, an effective manager has the potential to take on some of the accountabilities that command so much of your time. But how is this by itself really going to move your vision any closer to reality--and without bloodshed?
Back to the hats: In the development stage of your business, they're all yours to wear. You must be able to look at your business from each of the three distinctive points of view. As The Entrepreneur, you have the sole authority and responsibility to determine the direction of the business. How will the business be positioned in the world; in the eyes of its customers, employees, lenders, vendors and the larger community? The Entrepreneur must determine and constantly reinforce the company's intention.
The Entrepreneur's vision is The Manager's marching orders; the vision is the gold standard. The Manager's duty is to enforce and manifest the vision.
Ultimately, managerial work bridges the space between the entrepreneur's vision for the company and the daily technical efforts moving the business toward that vision. Effective managers, those who can motivate employees to reach their full potential while working on beneficial tasks, are instrumental in building turnkey, systems-dependent businesses.
What a Manager Needs To Do
A Manager must have several critical characteristics. One is "know-how." Some managers arrive with some "know-how" intact--knowing what to do and how to do it—getting work done through other people (Technicians). At a minimum, effective managers will have the ability to find out how to do that. Knowing how or knowing how to find out how is one of the minimum required skills of a successful Manager.
The other essential characteristic of a successful Manager is the ability to transform that know-how into processes and systems that will enable people to get the desired results.
The only effective processes and systems are those that will achieve the Entrepreneur's vision. Those processes and systems are the tools the Technicians use to get the results that fulfill the vision. The Manager does not manage people. The Manager manages systems. People are unmanageable. Systems are not.
People respond to orchestrated patterns. Within those patterns (systems and processes), people can manage themselves! Let me say again: People are unmanageable. Systems are not.
An effective business must begin with the vision. The effective Entrepreneur creates a compelling vision and infuses it throughout the entire organization. The effective Entrepreneur lives the vision. The effective Manager translates that vision into systems, and delegates the tasks to the Technician. The effective Technician operates within the system to create the results that move the vision forward.
A successful business owner does not wear all the hats at once. The owner of a successful business must practice the art of discrimination. The owner of an E-Myth business must know what hat is appropriate at any given moment, what characteristics are essential when wearing that hat, and when it is time to pass it off.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
5 Ways to Lose Good Customers
Een goed stuk van E-myth
While this statement may be quite true at the most basic level, it also serves to underscore the reality that one of the ongoing purposes of a business should be to keep a customer. No business owner would argue this point, but creating and maintaining quality customer relationships is often one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses.
Please Come Back Again
One of the dangers that befall many businesses is the tendency to become accustomed to having customers, to slip into a default mode of expectations: that the customers are happy, that they’ll keep coming back, that they’ll tell others about you. The problem is that customers are people—and people thrive on relationships. And if we are not careful our customer relationships can become superficial and even counter-productive.
No one wants to feel that they are being taken for granted and customers are no different. Again, customers are people and people must be related to, not processed! Simply “going through the motions” for your customers with the mindless expectation that they will always be there is a sure path to customer attrition. And an increasing factor in customer fickleness is the sheer volume of choices that available in almost every industry and every product or service. In many ways the business owner is not simply working to gain a customer’s patronage, but is actually engaged in a contest to win the hearts of those individuals!
Surefire Ways to Drive Business Away
There are certain clichés in business that are dubious in their truth, such as “the customer is always right.” But one that is undoubtedly true is that it is cheaper to keep an old customer than to find a new one. With this in mind let’s look at some of the most detrimental errors small businesses make in this arena:
5 ways to lose good customers
1. Ignore Your Customers. This cardinal sin can be achieved in person, on the phone, and even over the Internet. Many retail companies adopt a “10 Foot Rule” that requires customers to be acknowledged if the employee is within ten feet of them. Greeters at the door are not only good for Wal-Mart, and acknowledging customers by answering phones quickly and with a smile is just good business.
2. Make it Difficult to do Business With You. Customers shouldn’t have to work at giving you their money. And they shouldn’t have a fight on their hands if they need to return your product or are unhappy with your service. If you make it hard on your customers someone else is always willing to go the extra mile for them.
3. Display a Lack of Integrity. Whether this is simply staff making excuses for poor service or products, or engaging in sales or marketing practices that can be perceived as deceptive, being a trusted and reliable business is an absolute essential. No one likes to feel lied to or treated in a way that is less than honest.
4. Become Dull and Predictable. This doesn’t mean sacrificing reliability and standards of quality and excellence, but customers expect innovation. And people being people, they are stirred by positive surprise and delight – just because your business has been around for fifty years doesn’t mean it has to look and act like it.
5. Don’t Listen to Your Customers. We live in an age where product and company reviews are being posted for posterity across the Internet, and perhaps on your company’s own website. Therefore, it is critical for you to hear what your customers are saying and respond. This can also mean reviewing relevant blogs, performing regular market research and simply talking to your customers.
One of my clients recently began conducting educational seminars for her clients with the stated goal of providing valuable information as a “bonus” to her normal services. However, in the Q&A portion of the presentation she turns the tables on her audience by asking them key questions with intent of ferreting out the issues and concerns of her clients that she might not ever hear otherwise.
Another E-Myth client regularly meets with his entire staff to discuss customer questions, tips and best practices, and to elicit ideas for innovations and improvements to their services and products. The synergy of bringing together the “frontline” employees with the management team with a focus on their customers works to create an atmosphere and company culture that is customer-centric and service oriented.
What a Customer Wants
While the customer may not always be right, there is one cliché that cannot be discounted or ignored: The customer rules. And this means that the needs, wants and desires of your customers must come first in developing the processes and procedures of your client fulfillment realm. This means that for many businesses changes will need to occur as they can no longer afford to have “business as usual.”
For some this means making regular and ongoing efforts to “listen” to their customers: What do they like about your business? Your products? Your service? And, perhaps more importantly, what is that they don’t particularly like? Communication is vital and this implies intentionality and strategy on the part of the business owner. For others it will mean taking pains to create a customer-centric business model: one that takes into account the primacy of the customer and recognizes that the product or the brand is not the focus.
The good news is that today’s business world is awash with technology and new forums for conversation that allow you to not only engage your customers and prospects, but to keep your finger on the “pulse” of your customer base. And despite the vast number of choices and competition facing not only you, but your customers, the opportunities are equally vast to win the hearts—and loyalty—of your customers.
While this statement may be quite true at the most basic level, it also serves to underscore the reality that one of the ongoing purposes of a business should be to keep a customer. No business owner would argue this point, but creating and maintaining quality customer relationships is often one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses.
Please Come Back Again
One of the dangers that befall many businesses is the tendency to become accustomed to having customers, to slip into a default mode of expectations: that the customers are happy, that they’ll keep coming back, that they’ll tell others about you. The problem is that customers are people—and people thrive on relationships. And if we are not careful our customer relationships can become superficial and even counter-productive.
No one wants to feel that they are being taken for granted and customers are no different. Again, customers are people and people must be related to, not processed! Simply “going through the motions” for your customers with the mindless expectation that they will always be there is a sure path to customer attrition. And an increasing factor in customer fickleness is the sheer volume of choices that available in almost every industry and every product or service. In many ways the business owner is not simply working to gain a customer’s patronage, but is actually engaged in a contest to win the hearts of those individuals!
Surefire Ways to Drive Business Away
There are certain clichés in business that are dubious in their truth, such as “the customer is always right.” But one that is undoubtedly true is that it is cheaper to keep an old customer than to find a new one. With this in mind let’s look at some of the most detrimental errors small businesses make in this arena:
5 ways to lose good customers
1. Ignore Your Customers. This cardinal sin can be achieved in person, on the phone, and even over the Internet. Many retail companies adopt a “10 Foot Rule” that requires customers to be acknowledged if the employee is within ten feet of them. Greeters at the door are not only good for Wal-Mart, and acknowledging customers by answering phones quickly and with a smile is just good business.
2. Make it Difficult to do Business With You. Customers shouldn’t have to work at giving you their money. And they shouldn’t have a fight on their hands if they need to return your product or are unhappy with your service. If you make it hard on your customers someone else is always willing to go the extra mile for them.
3. Display a Lack of Integrity. Whether this is simply staff making excuses for poor service or products, or engaging in sales or marketing practices that can be perceived as deceptive, being a trusted and reliable business is an absolute essential. No one likes to feel lied to or treated in a way that is less than honest.
4. Become Dull and Predictable. This doesn’t mean sacrificing reliability and standards of quality and excellence, but customers expect innovation. And people being people, they are stirred by positive surprise and delight – just because your business has been around for fifty years doesn’t mean it has to look and act like it.
5. Don’t Listen to Your Customers. We live in an age where product and company reviews are being posted for posterity across the Internet, and perhaps on your company’s own website. Therefore, it is critical for you to hear what your customers are saying and respond. This can also mean reviewing relevant blogs, performing regular market research and simply talking to your customers.
One of my clients recently began conducting educational seminars for her clients with the stated goal of providing valuable information as a “bonus” to her normal services. However, in the Q&A portion of the presentation she turns the tables on her audience by asking them key questions with intent of ferreting out the issues and concerns of her clients that she might not ever hear otherwise.
Another E-Myth client regularly meets with his entire staff to discuss customer questions, tips and best practices, and to elicit ideas for innovations and improvements to their services and products. The synergy of bringing together the “frontline” employees with the management team with a focus on their customers works to create an atmosphere and company culture that is customer-centric and service oriented.
What a Customer Wants
While the customer may not always be right, there is one cliché that cannot be discounted or ignored: The customer rules. And this means that the needs, wants and desires of your customers must come first in developing the processes and procedures of your client fulfillment realm. This means that for many businesses changes will need to occur as they can no longer afford to have “business as usual.”
For some this means making regular and ongoing efforts to “listen” to their customers: What do they like about your business? Your products? Your service? And, perhaps more importantly, what is that they don’t particularly like? Communication is vital and this implies intentionality and strategy on the part of the business owner. For others it will mean taking pains to create a customer-centric business model: one that takes into account the primacy of the customer and recognizes that the product or the brand is not the focus.
The good news is that today’s business world is awash with technology and new forums for conversation that allow you to not only engage your customers and prospects, but to keep your finger on the “pulse” of your customer base. And despite the vast number of choices and competition facing not only you, but your customers, the opportunities are equally vast to win the hearts—and loyalty—of your customers.
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